traxxaspede

I just watched some antiques roadshow on PBS...And now I'm looking around the house looking at old books/paintings for anything that could be worth something. I also recently found I have about $500 in lego sets, not counting the thousands of miscellaneous pieces. We have The complete Time-Life Science Library, Great ages of man and 27 out of 28 of the Time-Life library of art. Probably worth around $200-$250 all together. It's kinda fun looking on ebay/amazon at prices of things you have around the house..Has anyone done this or know of anything they have that's worth a lot more than you bought it for/thought?

mechanizeddeath

Never been that lucky. I'm one of those folks that hits garage sales and thrift stores hoping to score that NIB Tamiya Bruiser, but I keep coming up empty handed. [&:]

In general, my family tends to throw things away once they reach a certain point. My grandparents were notorious for this, replacing everything from appliances to carpet every couple years If it became unfashionable, or just seemed like it had been there too long, it was gone. There's a 16 inch oscillating fan next to me that I've had most of my life, grandparents got rid of it after a year or two and I've had it ever since. Anyway, given that mindset, there isn't much in the family worth anything.

My grandpa did save and sell his wagon and baby buggy many years ago. I believe he got a few thousand for both. The wagon alone was probably the coolest thing I'd ever seen... Working lights and horn from a couple D cell batteries. Even better, he let us play with it even after he knew it was worth something, he just swapped the wheels so they wouldn't wear down further and told us to be careful.

The_Shark

i do have a 1938 emmerson brass fan that was worth $300 untill i "cleaned" it and ruined the motor trying to open it up, now its worth $30. cant complain since i picked it up for $5
and now i have a working 1968 westing house turbine fiberglass blade fan worth $250 if fully restored.

in order to make money with antiques, you have to know what your looking for, find the right place to sell it and be one lucky son of a gun.

i collect anything old or out of the ordinary. one piece that may be worth money is a OLD working exercise belt machine that my mother inherited.

mechanizeddeath

Ah Shark, I seemed to remember someone on RCU was into fans. I just couldn't remember who it was when I went and grabbed this thing from my parents basement. It's been mine for years, but I've lived in basement bedrooms with central air, so I haven't used it since probably the mid 90s.

It's no antique, probably only 25-30 years old, I just figured you might want to see it. I love the push button switches on the base, they have the same feel as the buttons on an old cassette player, which they were probably modeled after. The white one stops it while the blue ones control speed, with darker being faster. It's nice to have in the middle of the night to change speeds, as most modern fans have hard to reach rotary switches on the back or top.

I also had a "heater fan" I guess it was called. It was probably from the 30s, looked like any other antique fan, only with a coiled tungsten loop around the blades. Looked absolutely awesome, but my mother hated it as she has a phobia of old appliances, especially if they have moving parts or generate heat... and this did both. I was still underage at the time, so there wasn't much I could do. Into the trash it went, what a shame.

The_Shark

my friend has one of those, no he doesnt collect them, but they last forever, Japanese made.

i dont blame your ma and heated old appliances

mechanizeddeath

That's pretty cool to know. I've never seen another one like it, and though I've never had anyone say "hey, nice fan" I have had a lot of remarks over the years about the tape player style buttons.

It's kind of funny, I didn't think I had any actual antiques but in fact I sleep on one every night. My bed, dresser, and matching bookshelf are all antique Grand Rapids, MI furniture over 75 years old. I've just had them for my entire life, I literally went from the crib into this thing, so I don't really think of them as antiques, just stuff I've always had.

I do wonder what they'd be worth despite years of wear and tear, but I'd certainly never part with them.

The_Shark

i used to wear my grandpa's russian made mechanical watch, thats over 60years old, but im going to get it cleaned and re-lubed so it doest wear out.

i say if you have a antique that still works fine, and isnt worth a million, use it, sometimes letting something sit is the worst thing to do.

thats my same feeling towards old cars, leave it sit in the garage and say "oh i have a 57 Chevy in my garage" or say "i drive a 57 Chevy on weekends" anyone can go to a car show and see a nice car, but to be able to drive it is a different story.

also, depending on the item, wear and tear is actually desirable.

The_Collector

My parents had that same fan since I can remember. I loved that blue translucent blade.

Legos have a very consistant price return. Rare and unusual sets are of course the exception.
I had decent sized NIB Lego collection from the mid to late 90's and recently unloaded them on eBay. Most of them were Star Wars themed. Should have sold them 5 years ago.

mechanizeddeath

Interesting. ANd funny that so many people have this fan! Yeah the blue blade is probably my favorite part, I remember watching it cast a blue shadow from sunlight as it moved back and forth around the room.

I have tons of lego sets, and a few bulk brick sets, but I never thought to keep them separate... I normally just dumped them all into the same bin and would build them from there. There are even a few odd colored bricks that came from somewhere else, and I think they are much older than the rest of the ones I have. Early 60s, maybe.

I did find one NIB set when cleaning out my old stuff from my parents house. I vaguely remember getting it, and I already had the same set. Rather than return it, I decided to hang onto it to give to my kids someday. And here at 31, still no kids. [&:] I never thought Lego would be a collectors item. It's a space vehicle of some sort, probably from the early 90s. The figure has a shield on his helmet so I know it isn't one of the older space sets where they didn't have them.

The_Shark

i have a tackle box full of 30+ year old tackle, i have this one huge wooden spinner NIB. i have no clue what its worth, my uncle gave it to me.

im off today so ive been looking at garage sales/goodwill, nothing good. i have to find a OLD neighborhood, thats where all the attic goodies are

mechanizeddeath

I love going garage saleing. That moment when you find something you've always wanted/needed, for an amazing price... Awesome!

I remember I bought my mom a simple flower vase for a dollar at a garage sale. Nothing fancy, but I found out she'd almost bought one nearly identical for over $30 the weekend before, and was thinking about going back and getting it. She still uses it as a centerpiece, probably going on 20 years now.

The_Shark

look what i found out by the curb[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwL4bxi-Z5s[/youtube]

at first i didnt know how to turn it on, because it just has a on/off switch on the back that didnt turn it on and realized when i bumped into the grille it turned on. damn thing has a TON of power for a newer fan. disposible world i tell ya.

traxxaspede

mechanized, for the lego set you can look up the lego set model number (probably 5 digits) on amazon. just type "lego (# on box)" and it should come up. My brother had a Milleneum Falcon (sp?) and i recently build and looked up on amazon..NIB it's like $250..

mechanizeddeath

Wow, that's kind of cool. Wonder why someone would throw that away? I was going to mention that I bought another fan the other day. Just a crappy $15 box fan. I didn't notice it at first, but it is also a Galaxy brand, just like that old one. I doubt there's much relation though, with the way electronics and appliance companies change hands and sell nameplates.

I wanted to make sure I had another fan for when it finally gets hot here. When that happens, the stores run out of fans. And there's no way I'm wasting money to run that air conditioner, not unless it hits 90 degrees in here.

traxxaspede, thanks for the info on the set. I might try plugging it in later. It was just one of those little sets with probably 20-40 pieces for around $5 or so, probably $10 today. Doubt it would be worth more than double that today, but it might be fun to find out.

The_Shark

books are the newest collector's item... too bad i dont know how to read

mechanizeddeath

I have a fair amount of books. No idea where most of them went, I packed them up during my 2004 move and haven't seen them since. My guess is that they are at the bottom of some immovable pile in my parents basement.

Doubt they would be worth much, being mostly childrens paperbacks and such.